25 Incredible Data Center Statistics in 2024

If you’re into musicals or have at least watched one in school, you know the significance of the backstage crew — they set the stage while the performers own it. Data centers are like the backstage crew of your favorite streaming, social media, and online gaming platforms. They work behind the scenes to deliver these experiences to your screen seamlessly.

On a technical level, data centers are massive, high-tech warehouses that are filled with high-performance servers, data storage devices, and networking equipment.

Data centers aren’t limited to delivering the content of your favorite Netflix show to your QD-OLED TV screen. They also provide cloud computing services like Google Drive cloud storage space.

This benefits people like you and me as well as businesses because it means we don’t have to maintain our own hardware. All we have to do is purchase a monthly (at the least) subscription, which we can cancel anytime! In my opinion, data centers are the backbone of the internet. Here are 25 data center statistics that further highlight their importance in the digital world.

Data centers are essential, I can’t deny that (no one can), but the amount of electricity they consume worries me, especially since we haven’t wholly embraced renewable energy resources (yet).

A large data center, for example, uses the energy equivalent to power 750,000 regular U.S. households. That’s crazy if you really think about it.

Now, this stat is even more damning. American-based data centers could consume as much as 9% of electricity generated within the country by 2030.

Now I’m going to bring up ChatGPT, as it’s a leading contributor to the stat. ChatGPT searches use up around 10 times more electricity than Google searches.⁹

As long as we switch to all-green energy to power data center facilities, I don’t mind the amount of electricity they consume. It’s high time we act.

Artificial intelligence (AI) should be your new best friend, especially if you’re a student. But hey, don’t use it to plagiarize assignments. You have to learn to earn big! Complex AI tools like ChatGPT process a ton of data daily and consume a lot of computational power.

To put it into perspective, a typical AI system can use tens of thousands of kWh in a matter of days — I’m not surprised AI uses approximately 20% of global data center capacity.⁸

Does size really matter? It sure does on a basketball court, an American football field, and in the world of data centers! It’s simple math, really. A large data center can house more computing equipment than a smaller one can, which means it should technically offer more capacity.

The average size of a data center is around 100,000 square feet — and the following data centers comfortably breach this mark.

Located in Hohhot, China, the China Telecom Cloud Computing Inner Mongolia Information Park (good luck memorizing the name!) is the world’s largest data center, spread across a mammoth 10.76 million sq ft.²³

The Switch TAHOE RENO data center in Nevada is the world’s second-largest data center — it covers 7.2 million sq ft.²² A close third, the China Mobile data center in Hohhot occupies around 7 million sq ft.²²

The computers in data centers store all the stuff you see and use online. This means you should thank data center service providers for your daily dose of Instagram posts, Snaps, FIFA 24 wins, and side-splitting YouTube videos.

Given how the global data center market has its hand in every honeypot, I’m not surprised it’s a multibillion dollar industry. And I mean hundreds of billions.

It’s time to reveal the numbers. The global data center market is expected to rake in more than $344 billion in 2024 (by the end of the calendar year).¹

Your landlord isn’t the only one who earns money from rent. Data center operators, AKA “digital landlords,” rent out server and data storage space as well as network infrastructure. The network infrastructure segment is like its golden goose — it’s predicted to experience significant growth by 2029 and generate more than $315 billion.

To put it into perspective, this segment alone will account for almost 50% of the market, as the other two segments combined (servers and storage systems) are forecasted to generate around $300 million only.²

Every market has at least one key player. The U.S. is easily the kingpin of the data center industry. The U.S. has 5,381 data centers.³ It influences trends, sets standards, and drives a gigantic portion of the industry’s growth — you might be surprised to discover how many (or rather few) data centers the world’s second-largest data center hub has (hold your horses, that’s the next stat)!

Talking of data center hubs, the North Virginia region, AKA the “Data Center Alley,” is the data center hub of not only the U.S. but also the world, with facilities around Loudon County, Prince William County, and Fairfax County (London ranks second).⁴

I assume you enjoy numbers (why else would you be here), so here are some more: Northern Virginia has 51 million square feet of total inventory dedicated to data centers and reported more than 2,100 MW in the first quarter of 2023.^4,5

Here’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for (I’m all for dramatization); Germany is the Robin to the United States’ Batman in the data center market. The country has approximately 90% fewer data centers at 521.

The UK (514), China (449), and Canada (336) also feature in the top five list. Mexico has 219 data centers, which means North America has a whopping 5,936 data centers.³

While the U.S. is the kingpin of the global data center industry, you may be wondering who the kingpin of the American market is. Well, there are two big names. Digital Realty and Equinix rule the roost. Texas-based Digital Realty isn’t just limited to American soil — it has a global data center footprint with more than 300 data centers.⁶

The data center operator has facilities in 22 metros in North America and South America, 24 in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region, and eight in the Asia Pacific region.⁶ If you do your part to be eco-friendly, you’ll be happy to know the data center operator has more “certified green buildings” than anyone else and is an industry leader in efficiency, renewables, and waste reduction.

Equinix is as badass as Digital Realty, with 260 International Business Exchange (IBX) data centers to its name.⁷ These facilities are located in 71 major global metros (you can check the list here) and facilitate more than 10,000 customers, including 260+ Fortune 500 companies (like Microsoft, Amazon, and Walmart — stellar company).⁷

While it claims to offer an unrivaled uptime guarantee of 99.999%, I don’t buy it — you should take it for a test drive, just in case.⁷ And yes, like Digital Realty, Equinix is committed to environmental sustainability and energy efficiency.

My first laptop was a Dell system, so the company has a special place in my heart (I literally wrote my first love letter on it and before you judge me, I was just a child!). I’m not the only one who has fond memories with Dell. The multinational technology company is a crowd favorite, having earned net revenue of approximately $88.43 billion in fiscal year 2024.¹⁰

While Dell develops outstanding computer systems (I can attest to it), it’s particularly sought-after for its cloud IT infrastructure and storage systems (surprise surprise, it’s the world’s leading vendor) — Dell Infrastructure Solutions Group (ISG), the division that delivers these solutions, generated around $33.89 billion in the fiscal year.¹¹

I have a question for you. Would you rather be like Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk? It’s Bezos for me — Amazon is pretty essential for most people. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the undisputed leader of the cloud IT services market. It had a grasp on 31% of the market in the first quarter of 2024.

Microsoft was a close second, commanding 25% of the market share (side note: market share and revenue aren’t always directly correlated). Google Cloud completed the top three list, with a share of 10%. All told, the tech goliaths account for 66% of total market spend in the first quarter of 2024.¹²

Whenever I take a picture, it’s automatically backed up to iCloud storage. If you aren’t an iPhone user, I know you’ve used Google Drive at some point (I use it every day). While these common cloud services aren’t considered cloud IT infrastructure, they leverage it.

My point is, cloud infrastructure is everywhere, so much so that it’s a significant contributor to annual IT spending — more than $105 billion was spent on it in 2023.¹³

It includes abstracted (infrastructure with simplified interfaces) hardware, storage, virtualization, and network resources. When you integrate these components, you’ll get a complete cloud computing platform, such as Google Cloud Platform (GCP) or AWS.

I promise you, we’re coming to the end of revenue-based stats (just two more after this one)! Given the sheer size of the data center market in the U.S., I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night without exploring the projected revenue of the market in a few years’ time. And yes, it’s as grand as you might expect — the United States is expected to yield revenue of more than $212 billion by 2029.

I didn’t expect, the server segment to be its largest contributor ($91.44 billion), but numbers don’t lie.¹⁵ Here’s a fun comparison: The UK (which ranks second) is forecasted to generate $23.76 billion in the same period, marking a mammoth difference of approximately $188 billion!¹⁴

Let’s expand on the previous stat to truly grasp how large the American data center industry is. With revenue of $212.06 billion by 2029, the U.S. will make up approximately 35% of global data center revenue (which is estimated to be more than $600 billion in the forecast period — you already know that).^2,14

Here’s the cherry on top: The world’s second-largest data center market, the UK, will only contribute around 4% of this revenue!^2,14

I’ve documented the astronomical amounts of energy data centers consume. Switching to green energy is necessary but solves only half the problem. The efficiency of data center equipment is a matter of concern. Let me make it easier for you to understand my point.

You can measure the efficiency of a data center’s energy usage by calculating its power usage effectiveness (PUE) ratio. This compares the total power used by the facility to the energy used by the computing infrastructure alone. The lower the ratio, the better (it indicates minimal energy is being spent on non-IT infrastructure like equipment cooling and facility lighting).

Unfortunately, the numbers aren’t all that great. The average annual PUE at the largest data center of data center operators was reported at 1.58 in 2023.¹⁶ We need to find ways to lower the ratio — techniques like cooling optimization, efficient power distribution, and regular maintenance should help.

I fell in love with Japan after watching “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.” While Dubai is better known for its supercars, Japan is the humble home of legendary cars like Toyota Supra, Nissan GT-R, Honda NSX, and Subaru WRX, with its capital Tokyo leading the way (Sean Boswell agrees).

Tokyo is also noteworthy for being the world’s most expensive market to construct data centers (ouch). The cost per watt is an astonishing $13.70. Zurich is a close second ($12.98 per watt), followed by Silicon Valley ($12.15 per watt), New Jersey ($11.92 per watt), and Singapore ($11.40 per watt).

Notably, a German city doesn’t even appear in the top 10 of this list — the cost of data center construction in Frankfurt (12th place) is $10 per watt.¹⁷

Welcome back to the discussion, AWS! Amazon’s cloud computing platform is comprehensive to say the least. It covers 34 geographic regions (soon to become 40!).¹⁸

Additionally, Amazon operates a network of more than 600 CloudFront edge locations.¹⁸ In simple terms, an AWS edge location is a small data center that’s close to you. It helps efficiently deliver content like your favorite Amazon Prime shows to you in double-quick time

We both know data centers and AI models consume huge amounts of electricity. Ironically, data center operators can use AI to save energy in facilities (not all is doom and gloom in the AI department!). Operators can use AI to save approximately 40% of power spent on facility cooling.¹⁹

Additionally, they can harness the capabilities of AI to minimize downtime (data outages could cost a fortune), improve cybersecurity, and automate processes.

From the moment we wake up, we’re constantly on our phones. I think I spend at least 12 hours a day on one electronic gadget or another. eCommerce and over-the-top (OTT) platforms like Amazon and Netflix command a significant portion of my screen time (especially on weekends), and I am merely one of the millions of customers they have worldwide. To put it into perspective, Amazon has 300 million annual shoppers!²⁰

It’s not easy to efficiently service millions — I mean, a few seconds of downtime on Netflix would frustrate me and prompt me to switch to Amazon Prime. These platforms require robust data center infrastructure to house their digital platforms and services.

It’s no wonder eCommerce and media and entertainment industries account for about 35% of data center usage.²¹

African culture is wonderfully diverse, and I’ve been lucky enough to attend a few scintillating performances by African performers. All the Africans I’ve met have a larger-than-life personality. This reflects the continent’s size and population, as it’s the second-largest continent and has 54 countries.²⁴

Staggeringly, though, the continent accounts for less than 1% of the total data centers globally (it only has around 100 data centers).²⁵

Hopefully, the above stat will be considered a mere blip in the near future — Africa is a land of immense potential (just look at the current crop of footballers emerging from Africa!). Africa’s data center market revenue is projected to grow at a steady CAGR of 7.18% till 2029 and touch roughly $9.15 billion in the time frame.

To put it into perspective, revenue in 2024 is expected to reach $6.47 billion (by the end of the calendar year) — approximately $470 million more than in 2023.²⁶

It’s time to turn our focus back to the Chinese data center goliaths: The China Telecom Cloud Computing Inner Mongolia Information Park data center and China Mobile data center. They consume 150 and 130 MW of energy respectively.

These data centers rely on renewable energy resources, so I won’t go on a rant. They combine wind, hydroelectric, and thermal energy to fuel their energy consumption.²⁷

Three of the world’s top five economies are Asian countries (China, Japan, and India), so it would be a travesty to not talk about the Asia-Pacific data center market (to add to that, I’m of Asian descent!).

Most of Asia-Pacific’s data center capacity (around 80%) is focused in five countries, of which the first three are obvious.²⁸ The other two are Australia and Singapore. You can consider Beijing as the capital of the region, with 1,799 MW of power.²⁸

Australians are known for being friendly, easygoing, and humorous. Though Australian cricket and rugby players are fierce competitors and don’t hold back with their words!

I’d say Australian data center operators are far from laid-back when it comes to curbing their carbon footprint. Around 28% of the power capacity of Australian data centers comes from green or renewable resources.²⁸

I associate Latin America with European football, delicious food, and gorgeous women. The region also happens to be the greatest advocate of green energy. Move aside Australia, it’s Latin America that deserves the loudest round of applause — more than 60% of power capacity from Latin American data centers comes from renewable energy.²⁸

You already know the environmental impact of data centers (revisit the electricity consumption stat in the U.S.) data center operators need to shift toward renewable or environment-friendly energy sources. After all, energy sustainability is the need of the hour. We’re quickly exhausting our renewable energy resources and harming the environment in the process.

If we don’t turn to more sustainable solutions, our offspring and future generations will face the wrath of our greed and ignorance (I’m talking about mankind since the late 18th century — the Industrial Revolution sure was something). Some of the major data center operators I mentioned earlier, such as Digital Realty, Equinix, and AWS, are already taking steps toward this. The future of data centers must be green.

While nuclear power isn’t non-renewable, it’s environmentally sustainable. That’s why market leaders like AWS are turning toward it — Amazon’s nuclear-powered facility in Pennsylvania, for example, is a marvel, boasting a capacity of a colossal 2.5 GW.²⁹

1. https://www.statista.com/topics/6165/data-centers/
2. https://www.statista.com/forecasts/1441973/revenue-data-center-market-for-different-segments-worldwide/
3. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1228433/data-centers-worldwide-by-country/
4. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1456836/leading-data-center-markets-by-inventory/
5. https://www.virginiabusiness.com/article/jll-nova-is-still-nations-top-data-center-market/
6. https://www.digitalrealty.com/data-centers/
7. https://www.equinix.com/data-centers/
8. https://www.wsj.com/articles/ai-ready-data-centers-are-poised-for-fast-growth-fadae952/
9. https://www.technology.org/2024/06/04/data-centers-predicted-to-consume-9-of-us-electricity-by-2030/
10. https://www.statista.com/statistics/264911/dells-net-revenue-since-1996/
11. https://www.statista.com/statistics/992556/dell-revenue-by-segment/
12. https://www.statista.com/statistics/967365/worldwide-cloud-infrastructure-services-market-share-vendor/
13. https://www.statista.com/statistics/503686/worldwide-cloud-it-infrastructure-market-spending/
14. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1370199/leading-data-center-markets-globally/
15. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1370196/data-center-revenue-by-segment-us/
16. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1229367/data-center-average-annual-pue-worldwide/
17. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1106621/global-data-center-markets-ranked-by-cost-of-construction/
18. https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/global-infrastructure/
19. https://www.ey.com/en_in/technology/how-ai-and-automation-make-data-centers-greener-and-more-sustainable/
20. https://capitaloneshopping.com/research/amazon-statistics/
21. https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/data-center-market/
22. https://techjury.net/blog/data-center-statistics/
23. https://worldstopdata centers.com/china-telecom-inner-mongolia-information-park/
24. https://www.thoughtco.com/continents-ranked-by-size-and-population-4163436/
25. https://www.theafricaceoforum.com/en/webinars/data-centers-cloud-services/
26. https://www.statista.com/outlook/tmo/data-center/africa/
27. https://worldstopdata centers.com/power/
28. https://brightlio.com/data-center-stats/
29. https://www.techtimes.com/articles/302411/20240308/amazons-aws-acquires-nuclear-powered-data-center-pennsylvania-650-million-expanding-cloud-computing-dominance.html/